We looked at two Windows
programs for controlling your computer from anywhere.
One of them was free.

The two
programs are I'm InTouch from 01 Communique, and LogMeIn
from 3am Labs. Both work off the Internet and were
remarkably easy to use. You install the software on the
computer you want to control, and you're ready. Both
programs have free trial periods, and LogMeIn has a
totally free basic version if you're willing to get by
without being able to transfer files. There's a way to
get around that missing link, by the way, which we'll
get to later.

LogMeIn
has a free and a paid version. In the free version you
can control another computer, but you can't transfer
files. In the paid version, you pay $13 a month or $100
a year and get all the features. Transferring files
could be the feature that matters most, of course. Let's
say you're in Stockholm and left your Nobel Prize
acceptance speech on the computer back in Kansas City.
What's a body to do? No problem, you go to one of the
computers at the Stockholm public library, log on to the
LogMeIn Web site (www.logmein.com),
enter your password and access code, and you're on.

Now in
order to do all this, or to operate any computer by
remote control, you have to have done two things: You
have to have installed the software on the computer you
want to control, and you have to have turned it on.
Don't forget to do that; remote access software cannot
turn on computers that are turned off.

Here's
how to get a file, even with the free version of LogMeIn.
Unless that file is unusually long, you can use a screen
capture program. We use SnagIt from TechSmith (www.techsmith.com).
You can then capture a file as you scroll through it.
SnagIt is not free, but it's useful for other things as
well. You would have to have SnagIt loaded on the
computer you're using, of course.

I'm InTouch works much the same way and costs $100 a
year. This is from 01 Communique (www.01com.com),
a Canadian software house. We've reviewed their programs
for a dozen years or so, and they've always had good
stuff. Some of the good stuff in version 4.0 is tab
navigation.

From
your remote computer you get online and go to their
remote-access login page. There you can choose from
several languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese,
German and Chinese (both simplified and traditional).
When you installed the software back at your base
computer, you gave it a name. Type that name here and
hit the Go button. Enter your password and you're in.
Choose Remote Access, File Management, E-mail, etc.

A "no,
we didn't forget that" note: The market leader in
computer remote control and access is GoToMyPC. We did
not get into that program because it has already been
reviewed by every computer writer in the known universe,
and you can go on the Web and check a dozen of them. It
is also more expensive than the ones reviewed here --
$20 a month or $180 a year -- and there seems to be no
advantage.

The Spyware Thing Again

Okay,
okay, we've done this to a fare thee well, but ...
they're still out there, waiting to attack. Yes, the
barbarians!

So
here's the problem for the defense: You can kill all of
the spyware some of the time, or some of the spyware all
of the time, but you can't get all of the spyware all of
the time. No, no, that was a different speech. But it
applies. What we have found with the dozen or so spyware-removal
programs we have run is that each tends to find stuff
the others didn't.

The most
recent removal program we've been using is Internet
Cleanup, $30 for either Windows or Macintosh, from
Allume. Allume is the new name of Aladdin, formerly a
well-known Mac software house.

What
attracted us first was Joy noticing you could get a free
scan of your computer by going to
www.allume.com. The free scan found 48 pieces of
spyware our other programs had missed. This does not
mean, by the way, the other programs are junk; what it
indicates is that the very latest spy-catching programs
and updates are needed to, well, catch the latest spies.
We downloaded an update for Spyware Doctor (www.pctools.com),
for example, and it found five spyware programs not
found by Allume's Internet Cleanup. But Internet Cleanup
still found some that Spyware Doctor did not.

Internet
Cleanup is a little confusing to run at first. If you
click "Buy" from the Web site, the program you download
says nothing about spyware on its start-up page. You
have to click a button labeled "Manual," for manual
operation, and then you'll see a button labeled "Spyware"
and removal can proceed. Do not be tempted by another
button, labeled "Thorough Scan." This turned out to be
so thorough that several of our programs no longer
worked. We resorted to Windows System Restore.

Internet
Cleanup also removes keystroke recorders and
screen-capture programs, and blocks unauthorized access
to personal information such as account numbers and
e-mail addresses. The "Secure Delete" button shreds
everything you delete so it cannot be recovered by other
software.